Rest for the Justice-Seeking Soulናሙና

Believing We Can Do All Things

Sometimes, we struggle with believing in humans’ capacity to transcend obstacles. Every day, people born with physical, men­tal, economic, and social hardships shatter the world’s low expecta­tions of them by excelling in areas of athletics, academics, the arts, and business.

Beethoven began noticing buzzing in his ears at age twenty-six yet he composed many of his greatest works after going completely deaf at the age of forty-four. Stevie Wonder’s blindness did not stop him from winning twenty-five Grammy Awards for his music. In 1921, Bessie Coleman, born to sharecroppers and a student at seg­regated schools, became the first woman of African-American de­scent to earn a pilot’s license. Richard Branson suffered from dyslexia before developing Virgin Records and becoming the fourth richest person in the UK. Bethany Hamilton lost her left arm to a shark bite while surfing but hopped right back on her board and won first place in the Explorer Women’s Division of the National Scholastic Surfing Association National Championships. 

It was the belief that they could do it that set them free to do it.

There is a spirit-force called faith that functions as a feeder sys­tem for self-confidence. With that kind of operating system with­in us, we are capable of doing anything we put our minds to. We can survive through dire circumstances; we can endure what seems unbearable; we can see what others cannot see; we can elevate our­selves over any obstacles in our way. 

We can do all things through Christ.

This feeding system is nondenominational; it is an im­portant component of how we were created at birth. Life challenges threaten this natural feeding of our spirits, causing many of us to doubt our innate internal power. But in truth, God did not give some the capacity to overcome and rise while ignoring others. Every human on earth has been seeded with the capacity to be more than they believe. We just have to find a way to nourish that seed, pull­ing the weeds that threaten to strangle it.

I have always believed in the power of faith but I must confess that in difficult times, I have backed away, frightened by forces out­side my life that seemed greater than me. But I’ve had to refocus on that divine seed, planted within us at birth and nurtured through­out our lives by God. Once that relationship is established, once we open ourselves up to the message the Divine has implanted in our DNA, then we can, in fact, get over, get up, get out, and get beyond our current circumstances. What God has planted and nurtured cannot be defeated. It may sway and bend during the storms in our lives but it cannot be destroyed. 

Whenever I think about the many people who overcame men­tal and physical disabilities, economic hardships, and racial stereo­types to succeed mightily in life, I am inspired. They remind us of how much we all have been gifted. 

We are stronger than the situations that befall us, and we are capable of getting through anything.

Amen and amen.